Combine chocolate-dipped cordial cherries with a cake ball to make these delicious Cordial Cherry Cake Balls. These sweet treats make wonderful Valentine’s Day desserts but are perfect to give as Christmas gifts or as birthday party favors.
For Valentine’s Day this year, I thought it would be fun to revisit a few of my most popular holiday recipes starting with my Sweet Chocolate Cherry Bombs, which are chocolate cake balls wrapped around a maraschino cherry then dipped in dark chocolate.
I knew when I made them for the first time, three years ago, brought them to a party, and they were gone in minutes, that I had hit on something pretty good. I’ve been so pleased to see that you like them too.
My original cherry bombs, are very chocolaty, and I’ve had several readers suggest using white cake instead to give my bombs the look of a cordial cherry. I thought that was a fun idea and just had to make them once I tasted Wilton’s new Cherry Cordial Candy Melts.
I recently received a box full of goodies from Wilton, and there were a few bags of their limited edition Candy Melts inside. I didn’t even finish unloading the box, before the bag of Cherry Cordial Candy Melts was opened. I was stunned. These little wafers really taste like a cordial cherry. I couldn’t believe that a piece of candy coating could have so much flavor and immediately I knew what I had to do.
I set the box aside, and started baking a white cake.
Using the same idea as before, I made cake balls with maraschino cherries inside, but this time instead of dipping them in semi-sweet chocolate, I gave them a bath in the Cherry Cordial Candy Melts.
Now, not only do they look like Cordial Cherries, but they taste like them too. You may be saying to yourself, “why not just make cordial cherries?”
Well I’ve done that before and did you know that you have to wait several days to eat them? The fondant centers take a while to liquefy. These you can eat as soon as you are done making them. Plus they have cake inside, are larger, and more of a dessert. What’s not to love?
I brought them to my mom’s game night and, just as before, they were gobbled up quickly. Every person in the room raved about them.
So, my first recipe remake was a success. I have more to share in the coming weeks, leading up to Valentine’s Day, so be sure to stop back by.
Oh, and before you go, Wilton is giving you the chance to win some of their wonderful Cherry Cordial Candy Melts, as well as, 18 more products so you can make fantastic cake pops, cookies, cupcakes and more for Valentine’s Day.
How to make Cordial Cherry Cake Balls
- Cut off all of the browned edges, top and bottom of the cake.
- This will ensure you have nice white cake balls to wrap around your maraschino cherries.
White Cake Balls
- Crumble the white part of the cake and mix in some of the frosting.
- Add more frosting until your cake balls hold together nicely.
- I use my KitchenAid to mix the cake and frosting. You can mix it by hand or use a food processor, as well.
- Add enough frosting so the cake sticks together.
- The number of cake balls you get out of this recipe will depend on how you mix them. When I made them by hand I got more per batch.
- I wanted my cake balls to be very white, so I only used the white part of the cake and white frosting.
- If you use the browned edges, top and bottom, you’ll end up with an off-white cake ball instead.
- I didn’t want to waste all of those crumbs, so I made some cake ball mixture out of it which I just dipped in some chocolate. You can see that there was a lot of this in the bowl.
Wrap cake ball around a cherry.
- Drain and blot dry your maraschino cherries using a paper towel.
- Scoop out tablespoonfuls of the cake ball mixture and wrap it around the cherries.
- Roll into balls.
Dip cake balls in chocolate.
Before you begin, if you don’t have much experience melting or working with candy melts, read my Chocolate Making Tips page.
- Melt the Cherry Cordial Candy Melts and pour into a short glass.
- Dip the cake balls by holding onto the cherry stem.
- Lift the cake ball out of the glass and allow the excess candy coating to drip off. Set cake balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- After dipping about 5 of your cordial cherry cake balls, pop them into the freezer for about 5 minutes. If you leave them out at room temperature for too long, they will begin to set and may develop white spots.
- So, move quickly and just dip a handful before freezing them.
- If you freeze them for too long, they can crack, so set your timer if need be.
NOTE:
- I do not find it necessary to freeze my cake balls before dipping them. Whenever you are dipping anything in chocolate or Candy Melts you want it to be close to room temperature. When it’s cold the chocolate will harden too quickly, causing it to crack.
- If your cake balls are too soft to dip, let them sit out, uncovered, at room temperature for about an hour. The exterior will dry out slightly, making them easier to dip into the chocolate.
Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Printable Recipe
Take chocolate covered cherries to the next level and make these Cordial Cherry Cake Balls! They're perfect for Valentine's day.
- 1 baked white cake brown edges, top and bottom trimmed
- 1/3 -2/3 cup white frosting
- 20 + maraschino cherries with stems
- 2 - 10 ounce bags Cordial Cherry Candy Melts
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Crumble cake.
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Mix in frosting, adding just enough so that the cake balls hold together.
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Scoop out tablespoonfuls of cake ball mixture.
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Wrap each spoonful around maraschino cherries.
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Roll into balls.
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Melt Cordial Cherry Candy Melts
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Dip cake balls into candy melts.
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Freeze for about 5 minutes, until the candy coating is set.
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Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
More Valentine’s Day Recipe Ideas
If you are looking for other treats or gifts to make for Valentine’s Day,
you might like these other recipes too.
Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake, Conversation Heart Cheesecakes,
Cherry Heart Pops with Chewy Chocolate Centers, Bee Mine Bumble Bee Corn Dogs
Fried Won Ton Roses, Warm Fuzzy Cake Balls and Cupcakes,
Conversation Heart Fudge, Chocolate Ravioli Hearts
Conversation Heart Toast, Sweet Chocolate Cherry Bombs, Teddy Bear Taco Tart,
Valentine’s Day Salad Topped with Tomato Hearts
Truffle filled Heart Box, Chicken Parmesan Hearts, Fudgy Peanut Butter Hearts,
Chocolate Heart Boxes
the conversation cheesecake hearts. leutheb(at)msn(dot)com
I love the heart cheesecakes with the conversation hearts! Di, bakerdi1@yahoo.com
The cordial cherry cake pops look yummy
any recipe! I want to make them all! 🙂
This is great! I have the cordial cherry melts and didn't know what to make. It's a nice gift for a guy since they aren't too girly/lovey dovey.
the chocolate heart boxes!
spgoddess55(at)msn(dot)com
Just found you. Really interested in the cherry cake balls
I just found your page on facebook. The cherry cake balls have my interest.
The conversation heart cheesecakes!
I like the Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Truffles
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{in the contest I am Margot Core on the Rafflecopter}
Hi there! I must say, I love all of your ideas! But I have one question: why are the giveaways just for U.S. residents?? That just makes me really sad haha
I feel bad I can't include all my readers in the giveaways, but it's so expensive to ship outside of the US (I just shipped a box to my exchange student in Germany and it cost just under $100 – crazy!) Plus there are so many laws that it would be impossible for me to govern an international giveaway. I'm so sorry!!!
Neat idea!
I *love* chocolate covered cherries, and these sound great! Much easier than making the fondant center ones!
The ice cream truffles from yesterday
I just stumbled upon this blog through Pinterest – love the cupcake wrappers and the Cherry Cordial bombs – will have to be trying this!
Just stumbled upon this blog from Pinterest. Haven't checked out too much – but these Cherry Cordial Cake Balls look fabulous. Will be giving them a whirl and checking out the rest of the blog! Happy Valentines!
The Warm and Fuzzy cupcakes! Love them.
These Cherry balls look wonderful. I am loving your chocolate cupcake wrappers.
Though these Cherry Cake Balls sound and look delicious, my favorite is still the Conversation Heart Cheesecakes.
I gotta say, I am LOVING the cordial cake pops idea!